It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of the X-Men. My first comic book was an X-Men comic book, and since 1993 I have been following these wacky mutant super heroes. So if there’s any book I will do my best to like it’s Uncanny X-Men. I’ve been very happy with this book since Fraction’s been writing it, but after the amazing story of Second Coming I don’t think the book is as good as it should be.
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, the book starts off in Africa where a young girl is hiding inside a Church after her Mutant powers activated. Apparently when her powers activated she scared her village and brought the attention of some soldiers who have killed her friends and family and are blocking her in until she comes out. Enter: Storm and Hope who come to her rescue, Storm immediately scares off the soldiers and Hope does her thing to help the girl get control of her fire and ice powers and then help her escape.
That’s the main story, there’s about three other stories involving other characters that are happening simultaneously. Iceman is meeting with a public relations firm in an effort to help the X-Men’s image after all the trouble with Utopia and Second Coming. Namor has to deal with his Atlantean subjects who have been spread across the ocean while dealing with his generals who feel he’s not devoting enough time to the kingdom. Meanwhile Northstar and Dazzler are doing their best to act like superheroes for the people of San Francisco. And if that wasn’t enough Emma Frost has come to the conclusion that she has to do something about her secret prisoner, Sebastion Shaw. The answer to Emma’s problem? Shadowcat. But we’re gonna have to wait for issue 529 to see what Emma and Kitty are going to do about Shaw.
I’m tired from just thinking about that! The upside is that there’s a lot going on and it makes for a fun and quick read. The problem is that with so much going on I kind of started to lose interest. I liked the stuff with Hope and Storm, and I’m interested to see what Kitty and Emma do, but the scene with Northstar and Dazzler just seemed like random action to break up the issue. It was kind of fun, but didn’t seem to have much relation to everything else that was happening. On a side note it is nice to see some other X-Men characters besides Wolverine and Cyclops.
The biggest problem with this book is the art. I hate complaining about art, but this could be so much better. It’s not as bad as the current art in Amazing Spider-Man, but the characters’ faces look awful. Their eyes are almost never even, at one point I looked at Hope and she looked like Sloth from The Goonies. Terry Dodson is doing these amazing covers, and the stuff inside is just missing the mark.
Overall it’s not a bad issue, the story isn’t terrible, but it is missing something. I think Fraction is building up to something and I’m going to keep reading to see what it is. As for the art the problem is Whilce Portacio is capable of so much better, I don’t know if he’s just rushing himself or what, but I hope if he continues with X-Men he will put more into it and do better.
Ken Zeider
Ken@ComicImpact.com